The present invention generally relates to overhead lighting systems for producing lighting in an architectural space; it more particularly relates to lighting systems comprised of inter-connectable lighting fixture elements that can be configured to provide both a desired distribution of light and a physical lighting system having a design that compliments the surrounding architecture.
Linear flourescent lighting fixtures have been known for many years. Characterized by elongated fixture housings of a characteristic cross-sectional shape, usually fabricated of steel or extruded aluminum, such fixtures are designed to be suspended from ceilings or wall mounted and to produce ambient lighting within an architectural space in the form of indirect lighting, direct lighting, or a combination of direct and indirect lighting. Early linear lighting housing shapes were mostly basic round and rectangular shapes. However, over the years a variety of unique and aesthetically pleasing shapes have been introduced to give architects and lighting designers a greater selection of products from which to create more innovative, effective and architecturally pleasing lighting designs.
Interconnectibility is one of the important features of linear lighting systems. Presently, straight, T, L and X end connectors are available for joining the ends of individual fixtures together. These connectors are limited to end-to-end fixture configurations such as straight or intersecting runs, or geometric runs such as a closed square. Side connector systems have also been devised which permit linear fixture elements to be connected in a grid pattern. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,798 to Herst, et al., discloses an adjustable overhead lighting fixture having hanger elements mounted to the ends of the fixtures which fit over and engage the curved side walls of another fixture or runner element. The hanger elements on the ends of the fixtures are relatively bulky and provide a mechanical connection only without any facility to electrically interconnect the fixtures.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,327 to R. C. Dameral discloses an overhead flourescent lighting system comprised of an elongated rectangular ballast housing to which the ends of individual linear lighting fixture elements can be mechanically connected and through which the lighting fixture elements are wired to the ballast in the ballast housing. Again, the mechanical connection between the ballast housing and the fixtures is relatively cumbersome and provides no particular aesthetic appeal for the system. In such a system, the ballasts are also separated from the fixture elements, such that the fixture elements cannot act as stand-alone units which can be configured without the use of the ballast housing.
A need exists for a linear lighting system that can be interconnected and configured in a manner not heretofore provided in the prior art. More particularly, a need exists to provide an aesthetically pleasing linear lighting fixture component of a lighting system which can be interconnected with other linear lighting fixture components in a manner that is itself aesthetically pleasing and that permits the linear fixture elements to be easily interconnected, both mechanically and electrically, without the connecting structures dominating the visual appearance of the system.
The present invention provides an edge connectable linear lighting fixture assembly which can be easily interconnected mechanically and electrically, which is aesthetically pleasing, and which provides a lighting designer with a powerful tool for creating overhead lighting systems with an architectural motif that has not heretofore existed.